cafeteria

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a restaurant where you serve yourself and pay a cashier

2. 2
   noun

   A restaurant in which customers select their food at a counter then carry it on a tray to a table to eat.

3. 3
   noun

   A dining area in an institution where meals may be purchased (as above), provided, or brought in from elsewhere.

Etymology

Borrowed from Mexican Spanish cafetería (“coffeehouse”), from cafetera (“coffee maker”), from French cafetière, from café, from Ottoman Turkish قهوه (kahve) (Turkish kahve), from Arabic قَهْوَة (qahwa, “coffee”). Doublet of cafetière.